When we talk about losing fat, two ideas, cardio and diet , come to mind , but the reality is that there are other very effective ways for you to get rid of that fat once and for all.
Today we are going to talk in three ways not so usual but very effective to achieve the change you are looking for.
1. Gain muscle mass
Yes, gaining muscle mass is perhaps the most effective way to get rid of that excess fat and we can see this thanks to the formula to calculate our Katch-McArdle basal metabolism.
When we talk about basal metabolism, we usually talk about the formulation of Harris Benedict. This formula is to estimate, by the average, the muscle mass and therefore the formula is different for men and women. In the case of the Katch-McArdle formula we have to introduce our fat-free mass and allow us to see the difference between a person with more or less muscle.
For example, let’s do the calculation and suppose that we are a person of about 85 kilos and 180 cm tall with a percentage of fat of 25%. In this case, our caloric expenditure will be 1,747 kcal per day, while if we lower this percentage to 15%, the expense goes up to 1,931 kcal.
And the best thing about this is that that extra calorie expenditure is every day . It does not matter if you are going to train or not, it does not matter if one day you eat more or less. The simple fact of having more muscle mass will make your body spend more calories and this does not happen when we talk about, for example, cardio vascular exercise.
The problem with this method is that you can not gain muscle overnight and that although you win you will have to control your intake, but I assure you that after a few years gaining muscle mass it will be much easier to get rid of that excess fat than at the beginning.
2. Intermittent fasting
We have talked about fasting before and I really think it is a very good way to lose weight and fat. I will not go into details because we have talked about this before, but the best advantage of this way of eating is that your metabolism does not slow down and that your appetite is controlled at all times .
Starting with the metabolism we have this study in which we see how a 72-hour fast not only does not reduce your caloric expenditure but increases it as a result of the hormones that your body generates during this period of non-feeding.
As for the appetite in this other study we see how ghrelin (the appetite hormone) has little or nothing to do with the time you have without eating. This hormone rises and falls according to patterns and customs that we ourselves have induced. If you get used to eating at 2:00 pm every day, when that time comes, you will get hungry and it does not matter if you have eaten two hours ago or 18 hours ago.
In the end, these two points make intermittent fasting something that we must take into account over traditional diets.
3. HIIT
I admit that this is perhaps the most predictable of the three. HIIT or high-intensity interval exercise has several times demonstrated its effectiveness .
It is not so much the amount of fat that is burned but the reduced amount of time that this type of workouts requires . In just a few minutes it has proven to be just as effective as a more traditional option such as long-term conventional cardio thanks to the calories that this type of exercise is capable of burning even after training is over .
And we are not talking about an option that is only valid for athletic and trained people. As we see in this other study people with overweight also benefit from this type of training losing weight and improving blood pressure.
Therefore we speak in an equally valid way, but that literally requires three times less time. Do you need any other reason?
